Research | Longevity Business Lab and Heritage Marketing

Turritopsis Nutricula is the scientific name for a particular species of jellyfish, just a few millimeters in size, it survives life cycles that follow one another and that can repeat themselves indefinitely.
Commonly known as the Immortal Medusa.

Scenario

Long-lived businesses have recently sparked the interest of academics from a variety of disciplines, ranging from history to sociology, management to economics. To investigate the issue of longevity, various approaches and perspectives are used to identify the factors that can explain a company's ability to survive over time. More recently, greater emphasis was placed on the opportunity to capitalize on the intangible value contained in longevity, understood as a strategic resource of fundamental importance for the acquisition and maintenance of competitive advantage by historic companies, guardians of a heritage of values and traditions on which to build empathy and trusting relationship with the customer. In this view, the ability of long-lived companies to enhance their traditions and culture through Heritage Marketing tools (Misiura, 2006), as well as rediscover and communicate their past through storytelling, is crucial (Gabriel, 2000; Fontana, 2013).

Mission

The Longevity Business Lab seeks to spread the business culture by leveraging the distinct identity of longevity. The wealth of skills, knowledge, and know-how of long-lived companies are among the most important assets of this type of company, on which development, sharing, and communication strategies based on longevity enhancement must be built. In an era of rapid change, where communication is increasingly pervasive and standardizing, using longevity to build a stronger and more distinct identity represents a goal for differentiation and competitiveness.

Actions

Research
-Monitoring activities, particularly in the South, of the long-lived businesses currently active in the area;
-Creation of a database on long-lived businesses in the South;
-Development and Research in the context of Heritage Marketing of new tools for the enhancement of long-lived businesses;
-Partnerships with other academic research groups studying the phenomenon of corporate longevity;
-Presentation of the results of scientific research, of an interdisciplinary nature, on longevity issues presented at national and international conferences dealing with management and business culture.

Training
-Seminar cycles for the dissemination of business culture based on longevity;
-Thematic workshops with Bodies and Institutions for the enhancement and promotion of long-lived businesses;
-Testimonial cycles at university courses dealing with management and business culture of entrepreneurs who own long-lived businesses;
-Experiential training for entrepreneurs who own long-lived businesses to acquire transversal skills, balance of skills, strengthening of soft skills.

Contamination
-Outplacement paths for undergraduates and recent graduates of the University of Salerno in collaboration with long-lived companies;
-Sectoral thematic workshops with graduates and undergraduates and entrepreneurs who own long-lived businesses;
-Project work on innovative business ideas that can fuel the debate on entrepreneurial change and the organizational climate.
-Unstructured experiences of contamination with sectoral and productive areas that can fertilize entrepreneurial knowledge and those of students / graduates.

Partner

Associazione Aziende Storiche Familiari Campane “I Centenari” - www.assocentenari.it

Location

The LBL is located in Fisciato at the Department of Management & Innovation Systems (DISA), Università degli Studi di Salerno
Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132 - 84084 - Fisciano (SA)